Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-01-06

where are the buffaloes that used 10 90
butfalolng, and the antelopes that went
anteloping across these plains?"
They have ruthlessly killed or Tor
their skins, was the answer.
"Ah, yes; ali, yes; / reflect now. The
buffalo robe has gone to make the seal
skin sacque of effete and shiveriEg east
worn very late and very early In the sea-
son, the symbol of metropolitan extrava-
gance; also, to furnish the walrus over
coat, or to cellar and cuff the overcoat OF
the imminent theatrical manager, or to
warm the star whose scintillatious, al
thougn they serve to occasionally warm
Tue audience, leave him cold and SILVER
ing When the play is over. All. yes, the
ounalo robe! L own an initiated one
ana OUT mere is where they growl Ihave
hsaru that The hunters used TO steal the
rooe from the buffalo with as little com
Pohctlon as they would take one out of
my slelgh, and let its shorn owner gallon
Oh, singing IN the language OF Robe
spierree:
The knife "f the hunter my rob, hath tory
10 the western shore we travel shorn
But are all the bisons gone from their
ancient domains?"
There are very few left; hardly
enough to supply the market for ierkes
meat"
"Jerked buffalo meat! Yes, YES. Ire
member had some lunch in Kansas CITY
after lecture tour. It's tough. You
tasten your teeth on it, get a good grin
with both hands, and jerk when You don't
get bite. L know it. l have no SYM
pathy for the buffalo. 1t is a tough road
he travels and he deserves it, BuS see;
there goes band of noble Indians on the
warpath."
oh, no. Those are cowboys.
es, now see. A band of noble COW
boys on the cowpath. But are there no
Indian residents of these plains around
here?"
They are about all gene west, OF are
dead.s'
That's just what said long ago. If
1t kept on that way there would not be p
noble red man left, nor right. I never
did uphold this promiscGous Strengthening
OF Indians IN dispatches of our frontier
commanders. j always thought they kill
ed to many, on paper, unnecessarily, and
that 1t was not only disastrous to the In
dams, but 1t was disgraceful to be killed
IN such vast numbers with ink, but we
have enough of them to spare. Then
look at the number of Indians it takes TO
supply the authors of weekly dime
noVcls-sent to the happy hunting
grounds before they know it or are pre-
pared for 1T | said long since that as the
rate the sanguininary authors were
Strengthening them, in few years time
they would have to go back into tho past
for enough Piutes to stock two chapters
of border tale. However, in expeditions
after hostile trib s | have always avoided
the policy of taking one Indian romance
writer along TO put him at the front, and
the demand would soon exhaust the sun
ply, and save the lives of our precious
soldiers. Still sigh grabs me when I
think now the aborigine is being driven
toward the setting sun, and | wonder
what will happen when ho is driven into
It." And Artimus wiped an imaginary
tear out of his imaginary eye with nearly
an Imaginary handkerchief.
After reflective pause the now sub
dued passenger said:
This is the great west"
Yes" said Aremus, ''the great west out
here gets pretty far west, more west than
1t has ever been in its life, and yearly
more so.
Westward the course of empire holds
its way,
| never was in section where the
country was more numerous and stretch
ed out on the Indian rubber plan, as it
we're. There is more of it to the square
mile than [ ever saw before. | observe
that on these plains the eye can see as
far as it can reach, and then it has to
sit down, exhausted, to rest before it
can continue its excursion further away
Distance is all knocked endways here
Now you observe those elks over there"
"Elks! Those are Texas cattle"
II should have said Texas cattle. They
only seemed half mile away, bat if I
was sent out to reach them / would be
swo miles away in no time. mile is
nowhere here. Everything is boundIess
You buy claim nut here and il is also
boundless. Next thing you know you
have half of all your neighbors' claims
Of course you'll fight a little over It,
Every foot of these plains has been hal
lowed by the pen of Emerson Bennett
Now there is your beautiful prairie flower
there is"
That's iimson weed"
II mean the one right by it."
"That's prairie thistle"
"Well, what 1 mean to say is that I am
going to sleep. Good day"